Etchings in Electric Stone

Geocaching has little real purpose.

But its benefits are up there.

It gives me the one thing I've not had since playing soccer in high school — a purpose to going outside, instead of merely wandering in the horrible heat.

So, as winter sets in, I'm going to give it a whirl. I mean hell, a GPS unit would be great to have in the car anyway. But this is something that I need. I want to be outside a little more, but I don't want to just wander. In Natomas, that could get you in trouble.

I've talked to Tim about it, and he seems interested. I pose the idea to the rest of you as well. What do you think?

Gladys Rindal Peck died Friday night from complications resulting from hip surgery. She was 82.

"Aunt Gladys," as she was normally called by the Dorsey family, will be missed. More than she will know.

Singstar has deemed me a angsty white woman when it comes to song choice. Natalie Imbruglia just works for me. DRUNK!

The outpouring of generousity and joy at our wedding cannot be measured by the mind. It's as far beyond it as Earth is to the next galaxy.

We can't thank you folks enough. We could try and single you all out for your various helpful moments, be they sending messages, picking music, showing us where to go or just making us laugh on our special day. But there's just too much to account for.

Thank you, each and every one of you, for making June 14, 2008 a day we will never, ever forget. Even the drunken parts.

Katie and Jake Dorsey

It's good to be married. Photos to follow in a few days.

1. Send back those RSVPs! We need them in relatively soon.

2. Comment here if you are into the karaoke party bit. There will be drinking. By me. And many others. But mostly me.

http://www.vpc.org/press/0804gundeath.htm

I found this browsing Town Hall, a site full of conservative hacks. This is interesting, though, and my weak analytical mind makes me wonder.

The top five states with the highest gun death rates all have relatively permissive gun laws. Certainly we can assume Alaska and Montana do. But what I find weird about the list is that the five states at the top all have relatively small populations. A check from the U.S. Census Bureau confirms this.

La., 4.2M; 19.04
Alaska., 670K; 17.49
Mont., 944K; 17.22
Tenn, 6.08M; 16.39
Ala., 4.59M; 16.18

So theoretically, it wouldn't take many deaths per 100k to add up to the totals the Violence Prevention Center and the Centers for Disease Control reached, at least for Alaska and Montana. But Tennessee has a relatively good-sized population.

Compare that with the five states with the lowest gun deaths per 100k, all with relatively restrictive gun laws:

Hawaii, 1.25M; 2.20
Mass., 6.4M; 3.48
R.I., 1.06M; 3.63
N.J., 8.72M; 4.99
N.Y., 19.30M; 5.28

New York's death rate via firearms, while not as high as Montana's or Alaska's, is probably much higher in total persons if you consider how many people live in that state. Likewise with New Jersey.

Note also that the original study, conducted by the CDC and the National Center for Injury Control and Prevention, notes gun deaths — not murders, not crimes. Just who died from bullets.

Factors to consider would be suicides, accidental shootings and police-related shootings, to name the major three. We could consider shootings made in self-defense, but I haven't gotten that far in my Gun Facts book yet.

This leads me to a reversible question: "Do restrictive gun laws really prevent people from dying?" If we go by actual people killed, New York and New Jersey clearly point toward "no." Rhode Island and Hawaii are states with tiny amounts of land, and I think that should factor in somehow (those states should have more restrictive laws because they're small and police can respond quickly, or something). Massechusetts and Tennessee kind of wash out, and Alabama and Louisiana seem to support a "yes" answer. Alaska and Montana would be discounted for the opposite reason of R.I. and Hawaii (lots of open land, no need for public safety restrictions).

However, if we flip the question around, and say, "Do unrestrictive gun laws really prevent people from dying," it becomes hard to tell as well, as there's no evidence of that. We'd have to go back to the source material from the CDC to determine how these people died, if the CDC categorized that information at all (the Town Hall report suggested it categorizes some of it). I haven't found it yet, and I'd like to make love to my soon-to-be wife sometime tonight.

We can be sure that as of 2001, firearms-related deaths were 57 percent suicides, with homicide accounting for 38 percent. We also have a hard number to go off of — 30,694.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/data/timely0604injuries.pdf
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/injury99-05/injury99-05.htm

For argument's sake, we'll assume the percentages haven't dropped.

30,694 * 0.57 = 17,495 people who killed themselves.
30,694 * 0.38 = 13,198 people who died because they were shot.

I'll update this when I have the chance (probably tomorrow), but if New York has a state population of 19.3 million ... do the math ... do the math AFTER Katie corrects me ... and we get 1,129 people killed by firearms in that state. That's a fair chunk. For Louisiana, however, we get ... 800 people. Also a good little chunk. I think it's worth revealing that New York City is a city of 18.5 million people, so that should be kept in mind.

Note how they measure gun laws — "household gun ownership." We get no details on the guns they own or how they use them.

How's all this add up? Basically, right now at least, I'm feeling the VPC is out to scare the shit out of me, or convince me of something that should add up, but doesn't. Not sure about the rest ... but I'm not convinced to give up my XD-9, yet. Especially if most people are blasting themselves, which they've every right to do, and not other people, which they MIGHT have a right to do.

Interesting. Now, to the bed.

E-mail me your mailing addresses, or call me with them. doshii_jun@yahoo.com will suffice.

This does not include wedding party participants (Eric and Tim). But Thomas, Chris, Walker, Yuya and Rob (if anyone sees him) are included. Thanks all.

All addresses have been received. Thank you gentlemen; it's appreciated.

I hate Full House. She'll never change me.

http://www.capradio.org/programs/insight/default.aspx?showid=4606&programid=10

I'm technically the associate editor. I smell a correction.